Samson and Delilah in Medieval Insular French: Translation and Adaptation

144 Pages·2018·3.23 MB·English

by  Catherine Léglu

THE NEW MIDDLE AGES
Series Editor: Bonnie Wheeler
SSAAMMSSOONN AANNDD
DDEELLIILLAAHH IINN
MMEEDDIIEEVVAALL
IINNSSUULLAARR FFRREENNCCHH
TTrraannssllaattiioonn aanndd AAddaappttaattiioonn
CCaatthheerriinnee LLéégglluu
The New Middle Ages
Series Editor
Bonnie Wheeler
English and Medieval Studies
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX, USA
The New Middle Ages is a series dedicated to pluridisciplinary studies
of medieval cultures, with particular emphasis on recuperating women’s
history and on feminist and gender analyses. This peer-reviewed series
includes both scholarly monographs and essay collections.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14239
Catherine Léglu
Samson and Delilah
in Medieval Insular
French
Translation and Adaptation
Catherine Léglu
Department of Modern Languages
and European Studies
University of Reading
Reading, UK
The New Middle Ages
ISBN 978-3-319-90637-9 ISBN 978-3-319-90638-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90638-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018949353
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A
cknowledgements
Many colleagues and friends have contributed directly and indirectly to
this book. The idea came out of two invitations. One was a contribution
to a conference on the manuscripts of Reading Abbey, co-organised in
2015 by Anne Lawrence and Laura Cleaver for the University of Reading’s
Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies. The other was an introductory
chapter to a volume devoted to performance in the Middle Ages, edited
by Pauline Souleau and Henry Hope. Both projects led me to conclude
that there was more to be said about the translation of this biblical nar-
rative in medieval culture. Papers from various stages of this project were
presented at the conference ‘New Perspectives in Occitan Literature’ at the
IMLR, September 2015, the Annual Conference of the Society for French
Studies, Glasgow, July 2016, and at the International Medieval Congress,
University of Leeds, July 2017. Peter Kruschwitz helped me with the epig-
raphy in Chapter 2. Françoise Le Saux, Jim Simpson and Lindy Grant read
drafts and made many useful suggestions. I am grateful also for the gen-
erous and helpful comments and suggestions of Peter Davies, Marianne
Ailes, Linda Paterson, Simon Gaunt, Tom Hinton, Daron Burrows,
Rebecca Rist, Irène Fabry-Tehranchi, Paola Nasti, Anne Marigold Norbye,
Ardis Butterfield, Jim Simpson, Kathryn Smith, Brent Pitts and Sara
James. The University of Reading’s Department of Modern Languages
and European Studies granted me a term’s study leave in which to see this
project through to its conclusion. Thank you also to my husband and chil-
dren for their forbearance.
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Parts of Chapter 3 are reproduced with permission from the editors
from my chapter, ‘Giving Voice to Samson and Delilah: Troubadour
and Monastic Songs of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’,
in Performing Medieval Text, ed. Ardis Butterfield, Pauline Souleau
and Henry Hope (Oxford: MHRA—Legenda, 2017), 39–52. Parts of
Chapter 4 are reproduced with permission from my article, ‘Reading
Abbey’s Anglo-Norman French translation of the Bible: London British
Library Royal MS 1 C III.’ special issue of Reading Medieval Studies,
edited by Laura Cleaver, 42 (2016), 131–155.
c
ontents
1 Interpretations 1
2 Visual Culture 27
3 Verse and Music 57
4 Prose and Image 87
Conclusion 121
Index 123
vii
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 2.1 Tympanum depicting Samson and the lion. St Mary
Magdalene’s Church, Stretton Sugwas, Herefordshire.
Reproduced by permission of Historic England Archive 29
Fig. 2.2 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Tableman, walrus
ivory, depicting Samson and Delilah, probably England
(possibly St Albans), c. 1130–1140 38
Fig. 4.1 © British Library Board. British Library MS Royal 2 B VII,
f. 46v 93
Fig. 4.2 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Cod. gall. 16, fol. 94 95
Fig. 4.3 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Cod. gall. 16, fol. 93v 96
Fig. 4.4 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, Cod. gall. 16, fol. 95v 97
Fig. 4.5 © British Library Board. British Library MS Royal 2 B VII,
fol. 94v 104
Fig. 4.6 © British Library Board. British Library MS Royal 2 B VII,
fol. 122 107
ix
d -r B , J 13–16
ouAy heims iBle udges
Each of the many different versions of the Bible reflects historical
processes of translation and reception. The fourth-century Latin Vulgate,
translated by Jerome from Greek and Hebrew versions, is the common
source for the medieval translations and adaptations that are discussed
in this book. All quotations from it are taken from Biblia Sacra iuxta
vulgatam versionem, ed. by R. Weber and R. Gryson, 4th ed. (Stuttgart:
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1994). Most recent English-language stud-
ies of Judges 13–16 cite the King James Bible (published in 1611,
revised in 1769); however, it is easier to render the idiosyncrasies of the
Vulgate text by consulting its closest translation into English, the Douay-
Rheims Bible (1582 to 1610, extensively revised in 1749–1752). Using
an early modern text also highlights the linguistic gap between Jerome’s
fourth-century work and writers of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries.
The extract below from the Douay-Rheims Bible and all other citations
from this text are taken from The Holy Bible, translated from the Latin
Vulgateand diligently compared with other editions in divers l anguages
(Douay, AD 1609; Rheims, AD 1582), Rev. ed. Richard Challoner
(London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1914).
Chapter 13
1. And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord:
and he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.
2. Now there was a certain man of Saraa, and of the race of Dan,
whose name was Manue, and his wife was barren.
xi